China's Han, Zhou march into BWF French Open men's doubles final

Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-27 21:15:06|Editor: Yurou
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PARIS, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese young shuttlers Han Chengkai and Zhou Haodong booked their berths in the men's doubles final at the 2018 BWF French Open here on Saturday.

Han and Zhou, both 20, upset defending champions Lee Jhe-Huei and Lee Yang of Chinese Taipei 13-21, 21-18, 21-17.

"It was not beyond our expectation when we lost the first game, so mentally we didn't experience many ups and downs," said Han.

"We just started from scratch and fought for every point in the second game," he added.

Han and Zhou repeated what they had done at the China Open one month ago by reaching the final at BWF World Tour tournaments.

"I feel a little bit excited," Zhou told Xinhua. "Now we have reached the final, which is a result of our effort in every match."

Han and Zhou will play the winners between world No. 1 Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia and Indian pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty who will compete later on Saturday.

The Chinese duo had shocked Gideon and Sukamuljo in the semifinals at the China Open.

"We will make full preparation for tomorrow's final, and put up our challenge against whomever we will play," Zhou pointed out.

"Reaching the final at the Opens doesn't necessarily mean that we are among the world's top level," Han said. "We do want to be the champions, but we need to keep our mindset stable and challenge our opponents tomorrow."

With a target of making into world's top eight in mind, the Chinese pair said that they need to continuously make amends for their weakness through training and competitions.

"We are not yet all-round players, nor do we make it to the final or semifinals regularly. We still need to improve in all aspects," said Han.

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